Gabby Douglas, the underdog gymnast turned two-time Olympic gold medalist who stole our hearts at the London games, is under fire–again. At 16 years old, Gabrielle “Gabby” Douglas became the first African-American to win a gold medal in the all-around competition, but shortly thereafter she was lambasted with ridicule toward her hairdo, which was called messy and unkempt on social media outlets such as Twitter.
Now a new firestorm has sparked against her remarks about being the victim of bullying and racism at the predominantly white gym where she trained for six and a half years in Virginia Beach. During an episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” that aired Aug. 26, Douglas recounted the trials and tribulations that she endured on her road to Olympic glory, which included being picked on at the Excalibur Gymnastics facility, where she says she felt “bullied and isolated.”
“I was just, you know, kind of getting racist jokes, kind of being isolated from the group,” she said. “I would come home at night and just cry my eyes out.” In addition, Douglas says she was once called “slave.”
“One of my teammates was like, ‘Can you scrape the bar?’ And they were like, ‘Why doesn’t Douglas do it? She’s our slave.’” For this and other reasons, Douglas choose to relocate to Iowa and train with coach Liang Chow when she was 14 years old.
In response, the staff at Excalibur has not expressed the slightest bit of remorse toward the Olympic star. Instead, they have blasted Douglas’ claims of being bullied, and the owner at Excalibur has called her accusations “fake.”
“We are good people. We never were knowingly involved in any type of bullying or racist treatment, like she is accusing Excalibur,” Excalibur CEO Gustavo Moure said in a statement to WAVY.com.
“Do you know Douglas and her mother to know certainly how much you can trust them?” he continued. “Mrs. Hawkins expressed [in the media] different causes for Douglas to leave Excalibur during the last two years. The bullying/racial issue seems to be her latest attempt at making Excalibur look bad.”
Moure added, “I wish to defend the children that trained with her and supported her when she attacks them with these allegations. Is Gabrielle a credible person just because she is an Olympic champion? She is not giving any names or dates, leading us to believe that the accusation is fake.”
Douglas’ former coach, Dena Walker, told Channel 3 in Hampton Roads that she was “shocked and very hurt” by Gabby’s comments, while other gymnasts Douglas trained with also disputed her claims.
According to Randy Stageberg, a world-class gymnast who trained at Excalibur, Douglas was never a victim, and “in fact many would say she was also one of the favorites,” she told GymNewstics.com. “I am not saying that she never felt bullied, because when you are in a sport with a bunch of girls, it is bound to happen”. However, anything that she may have felt was never about race, and I can assure you everyone at some point has felt bullied. I never once heard her complain about girls being mean. Funny how it is just now coming up.”
Kristina Coccia, a former champion gymnast, said Douglas should “stop playing the victim and respect the coaches who got you to the elite level,” adding that “this entire story makes me sick.”
Douglas and her family have not responded to the backlash.
